In May 2026 SASSA paid permanent grants over three days, from Tuesday 5 to Thursday 7 May. Those dates are now in the past. Use this page to match a May deposit against the official schedule, or to see why that month began later than most.
The three May 2026 pay days
- Tuesday 5 May: older persons grant, plus the war veterans grant and any grant-in-aid paid alongside it.
- Wednesday 6 May: disability grant.
- Thursday 7 May: children’s grants, meaning the child support grant, foster child grant and care dependency grant.
SASSA confirmed these dates in March 2026, after National Treasury approved the 2026/27 calendar. Beneficiaries picked for a grant review could be paid on a separate later day instead of the normal three. Pensioners who want more on their own May payment, including the amount by age, can read the May 2026 older persons record.
Why Workers’ Day pushed May back
In most months older persons are paid on or near the 2nd. May 2026 started three days later because of how SASSA’s scheduling rules met the calendar:
- Friday 1 May was Workers’ Day, a public holiday. SASSA does not pay on the 1st in any case.
- Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 May fell on a weekend, and SASSA avoids weekend pay days.
- Monday 4 May was ruled out because SASSA avoids Mondays and the day straight after a holiday weekend.
- That left Tuesday 5 May as the first possible day, with the other two groups following on consecutive days.
Freedom Day on 27 April came before the cycle and did not affect it. One other change landed at the same time: from 1 May 2026 Postbank stopped cash services at Post Office branches, so May was the first cycle in which grant cash had to come from shops or Standard Bank ATMs instead.
What May 2026 did not include
The SRD R370 grant is not part of this schedule. SRD payments are processed per person after each month’s assessment, so they have no fixed group dates; see the May 2026 SRD payment window for that grant. May also brought no new grant amounts: the 2026/27 increases had already started in April, and the grant increase page explains them.
Looking ahead to May 2027
SASSA has not published any 2027/28 dates; it usually confirms the new year’s calendar in March, once Treasury approves it. As a rough guide only: 1 May 2027 falls on a Saturday and Monday 3 May would normally be avoided, so applying the same rules points to a start on Tuesday 4 May 2027. Treat that as a projection until SASSA announces the schedule. For the months still to come in the current year, use the 2026/27 payment schedule.